Preschool Programs

Hidden Valley Community Preschool

Community Preschools

We teach cooperation and harmony

Learning and Growing Together…
Reaching the Whole Child through the Reggio Approach

Community Preschool is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. We use the term “inspired” because we see this Italian approach as a fascinating guide rather than a curriculum blueprint. We feel that our values of education, childhood, and community are deeply reflected in the Reggio Emilia approach and we hope to use that as a basis for our ever-evolving program. As staff, we are continuously learning with the children, with parents, and with other early childhood educators to gain a deeper understanding of education.

We offer an emergent curriculum that allows for flexibility, spontaneity, and in-depth exploration. It is most often child-directed and teacher-guided. This means that teachers offer provocations to stimulate the learning process, allowing children to investigate their own interests and theories. Sometimes these explorations turn into long-term projects where children experience the research process of questioning, hypothesizing, testing theories, learning from experts (ie: parents, community members, books), and exploring ideas through symbolic languages. Through these child-initiated experiences, children learn a variety of concepts and skills that will stay with them throughout their lives. Not only do they develop skills in literacy, art, science, and math, but they also develop the ability to communicate, to collaborate, and to think critically. We believe that children have the right to an educational program that values and nurtures these skills.